DISH Network L.L.C. ("DISH") is a U.S.-based telecommunications and television provider headquartered in Englewood, Colorado. The company was founded in 1980 by Charlie Ergen, Cantey Ergen, and Jim DeFranco as EchoStar Communications. As of December 31, 2023, DISH Network operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ: SATS), following a merger that reunited the two companies after their 2008 split. Prior to the merger, DISH Network Corporation was a publicly traded company. Employee counts vary by source, with recent estimates ranging from approximately 14,200 to over 16,000.
As an operating company, DISH's primary business is providing pay-TV services. Its core offering is a direct-broadcast satellite television service under the DISH brand, which includes hardware like the Hopper line of DVRs. The company also operates Sling TV, an over-the-top (OTT) streaming service that delivers live television channels via the internet. In recent years, DISH has expanded significantly into the wireless market, acquiring Boost Mobile, Ting Mobile, and Republic Wireless, and is actively building out a national 5G wireless network.
The provided data shows DISH as a plaintiff in one tracked patent case and a defendant in none, indicating its position as an operating company that asserts its internally developed patent portfolio. This is distinct from a non-practicing entity (NPE) that primarily acquires patents to license or litigate. The case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, a common venue for patent disputes.
The notable tracked case is DISH Technologies L.L.C. et al. v. fuboTV Inc., filed in 2023. In this lawsuit, DISH accuses fuboTV, a competing streaming television provider, of infringing on several patents related to adaptive bitrate (ABR) streaming technology. ABR is a fundamental technology used to adjust the quality of a video stream in real-time based on a user's internet connection speed. This litigation highlights DISH's strategy of defending its technological innovations in the video streaming space against competitors.